


What's So Good About Picking Up the Pieces?

by hubluhbluhbluhbleh



Series: Winterwitch Neighbors [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bucky Barnes & Wanda Maximoff Friendship, Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, Clint Barton is a dickhead, F/M, Heavy Petting, Hurt Wanda Maximoff, Past Sexual Abuse, Pietro is a good brother, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Siblings, Wanda Maximoff Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-18 07:06:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13094943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hubluhbluhbluhbleh/pseuds/hubluhbluhbluhbleh
Summary: Wanda tries to get her life and mind back to normal. That starts off with apologizing to Bucky. Pietro and Bucky have a misunderstanding.





	What's So Good About Picking Up the Pieces?

**Author's Note:**

> Wanda tries to go about her life with no fear. Pietro and Bucky are closer to figuring out why Wanda's been acting so weird. Natasha notices something off about Steve.
> 
> Trigger Warnings: Self loathing, self blame, mentions of sexual assault, awkward tension, awkward moments (possibly cringy?)

Wanda opens her eyes, sits up, and clutches her covers against her body. She feels the slickness of her skin underneath the sheet, and her heartbeat is slowly returning to a steady beat. She takes a moment to catch her breath. She looks at the clock on her nightstand. 2:59 a.m. She wasn't even asleep for that long. Nevertheless, Wanda gets out of her bed and walks quietly to the kitchen to get her a bottle of water. She pulls the refrigerator open, grabs a cold water out of the bottom drawer, and opens the cap, taking a big gulp to help cool her off. It's quite a refreshing feeling. She faces the kitchen window which sits right above the sink and looks outside. She can see the Barnes' living room from the kitchen. A living room that often stays empty and quiet until James throws a party.

She really fucked up with James last night. She tried to force herself on him, and she completely embarrassed herself. She hasn't tried to talk to him about the situation, and she doesn't plan on doing it anytime soon. She feels like she needs to bask in her embarrassment and cut ties with Bucky altogether. She's broken and messed up anyway; she might as well cut ties with everyone else in her life. And by everyone else, she means Pietro and Thor. Pietro will be difficult, obviously, but Thor seems to have a lot of friends to hang out with. He doesn't need her to hold him back. Maybe she can drop out of school and ask her parents for a job with the airline. She knows enough about flight attending from travelling with her mother and father as a child.

"Wanda?" She hears Pietro's voice call from the bottom of the stairs, startling her. "Sorry. I thought I heard you. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Wanda smiles at her brother and nods, "I'm okay. I just woke up and felt thirsty."

Pietro walks over to her and pulls her into his arms. Wanda sighs. She feels safe in her brother's arms.

"You sure? You've been acting a little differently here lately," Pietro says. Wanda's heartbeat begins to rise again.

"I'm sure," Wanda studders. "I've just been driving myself crazy with homework, and I missed a week of school, so I'm really behind."

Pietro furrows his eyebrow. Pietro isn't the smart twin, but he knows when Wanda is lying to him. He accepts the answer for now and lets Wanda go back up to her room, but a part of him tells him not to believe that answer no matter how possible it is. He intuits things very well, and his intuition tells him that something happened to her that she isn't talking about. He's too tired to stay up and think about it for tonight, but he definitely has a few ideas to go over.

Bucky allows himself in the next morning. Pietro is watching tv in the living room. Hearing the television, Bucky walks in and makes himself comfortable next to Pietro on the couch.

"Bucky? What's up?" Pietro greets him.

"Nothing much."

"You just want to hang?" Pietro asks.

"Yea, sure."

They sit quietly watching whatever Pietro has it turned to, but there's a tension radiating off the both of them. They both can feel it, and they decide to leave it alone at first, but it becomes unbearably uncomfortable.

Bucky breaks the silence, "So, is Wanda awake?"

"Nah," Pietro shakes his head. "I let her sleep in this morning. She woke up in the middle of the night again, and I figure she must be really tired."

"Have you figured anything out about why she's acting the way she is?" Bucky asks.

Pietro shakes his head. "I've been thinking about it. Wanda's always been a little weird, but she's acting really different here lately. She's having trouble sleeping. She's flinches a lot more than she used to. She hasn't been eating. She stays in the shower all day, and when she doesn't shower then she lays in her bed and stares at the wall. I don't know how I can help her if she doesn't tell me what's going on."

"Piet?" Bucky says, grabbing the distraught boy's attention. "There's something I gotta tell you, but I don't want you to freak out. Okay?"

Pietro nods is head. He feels his pulse in his head. He doesn't know why he's nervous to hear what Bucky has to say about Wanda, but if it can help him help her, then he's all for listening.

"Yesterday, I asked Wanda to tutor me on a unit we were learning in math, and she agreed to, so she came to my place last night and helped me with my homework. She seemed normal then, maybe more flirty than ever, but I went with it..." Bucky says.

"And?" Pietro says. He's not sure if he wants to hear about his sister and his friend getting cozy together when Wanda is dealing with something. On the other hand, Pietro's not sure where Bucky is going with this story. Everything seemed normal with Wanda besides her being flirty.

"We hugged when I finished the worksheet, but when we pulled away, she kissed me."

Pietro's eyes widen a little bit. Wanda kissed him? He didn't know his timid little sister had it in her to make the first move. Let alone it being her first kiss.

"She-she kissed you?" Pietro asks just to make sure he heard Bucky right.

"Yeah...and I kissed her back because we've done it before, but-"

"Whoa! Wait. You've kissed my sister before?" Pietro asks disbelievingly.

Bucky's jaw drops. "I-I thought you already knew about that."

"No! I didn't fucking know about that!" Pietro says. "Were either of you planning on telling me? Or were you gonna wait until you'd already slept together or something?"

Wanda makes her way down the stairs to the kitchen. She hears Pietro getting angry at someone, but she can't quite tell who or why. She finally glances in the living room where Bucky and Pietro are now standing up. Bucky has his hands up in defense; Pietro has his hands balled into fists by his sides.

"Bucky? You're my friend, and I still wanna be friends, but I'm gonna have to kick your ass for what you did to my sister," Pietro says bringing his fists up. What the hell kind of situation was developing from this.

Wanda sees this and feels like she has to stop it. She runs in the living room and stands in front of Bucky. She grabs Pietro's wrists while yelling, "Pietro! Don't! I wanted to sleep with him!"

Pietro's eyes widen. He didn't expect Wanda to say that to him. He also didn't expect his best friend and his sister to be shacking up. Fury flashes in his eyes, and he can feel his blood boil. Wanda hears Bucky facepalm before things escalate.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wanda gently presses the towel filled with ice cubes against James' eye. He flinches and hisses at the sudden burn. Wanda whispers apologies to him, but he brushes those off and looks at Wanda who looks back at him with genuine concern.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know you didn't tell him about us. I didn't think he would get that mad honestly," Wanda tells him.

"I did."

"Are you two still gonna be friends?" Wanda asks.

"I think so. He told me he was gonna kick my ass just for kissing you, but he told me he still wanted to be friends," James says.

Wanda looks at Pietro across the room holding ice to his hand. He's looking at Wanda and Bucky with a less angry look on his face. This calms Wanda's nerves. She didn't want James and Pietro to stop being friends on account of her.

"James? I hope you know how sorry I am over everything. Especially with how I was acting last night. I don't know what came over me. It was almost as if I was outside of my own body. I'm just-I-I'm so sorry," Wanda says.

James puts his hand over hers holding the towel on his face. He looks at her eyes and smiles. "No harm done."

Pietro walks over to the two and lays his towel on the counter next to Bucky.

"Are you two together or what?" Pietro asks.

"Piet!" Wanda whines.

"No! Really, Wanda! You didn't tell me the two of you...did that...so how should I know if you two are together or not?"

Wanda lets James grab a hold of the towel on his face and pulls Pietro across the room where she starts whisper yelling at him, "No! We're not together. We've never been together, and I don't think we'll ever get together. We just had that one night and that's all. I wish you would calm the fuck down."

"Wanda. I just want to make sure he's not taking advantage of you because you are vulnerable," Pietro says.

"Why are you saying that? It makes no fucking sense! Vulnerable over what?" Wanda asks.

Pietro hasn't heard Wanda get mad like this in a very long time, so Pietro is kinda walking on eggshells, but he knows something is wrong, and he wants to get to the bottom of it. He sighs, "Something's wrong here, Wanda. I don't know what's wrong, but something's going on that you aren't telling me about."

Wanda calms down after Pietro's confession. He's never been this caring before. It's a new feeling. It feels good to know that someone cares about her. She thinks this over a short pause and realizes that she has a lot of people who care about her. She doesn't know why she hasn't seen it before, but she's finally seen the light. Pietro has been checking in on her way more than he ever has here lately. And Thor. He's such a good friend to her. He brought them her homework and helped her when she missed school last week. He's been texting and stopping by to see if she's okay too. Steve. He's the only person she told about what Clint did to her, and he's been so amazing since he found out. He hasn't told anyone, which is how Wanda wants it to be kept. Steve even jumps in to help her avoid running into Clint in the hallway. Sometimes she'll notice Clint following her down the hall, and she feels like running away, but then she hears Steve's voice call out for the bastard. She turns around and sees Steve motion for her to keep going. She mouths a quick, "Thank you" before walking quickly to her next class. The only class she can't avoid him in is gym, and she doesn't know how to get out of that one.

"Hello?" Pietro grabs Wanda's attention.

"Thank you, Piet. For always looking out for me," Wanda says pulling him into a hug. "But I promise I'm okay. I'm swamped with school work, and I still have school work to do that I missed last week. I've been taking time for myself, and I can't get too distracted by watching movies, so I take a shower or I stare at my wall and think about things. I can't help it, but I promise that everything is okay."

Pietro blinks a few times before accepting that answer and giving Wanda one last hug. "I'm sorry. I'm a fucking idiot. And I'm sorry to you too, Bucky. Honestly, I don't know what came over me."

"No hard feelings," Bucky says pressing the cold and damp towel to his eye again.

"Look," Pietro says. "If you two want to be together, then I'm okay with it, but I don't want any details about anything."

Wanda and Bucky chuckle at him as Wanda says, "Piet? I don't think James and I will be getting together. It was just a heat of the moment thing, and it'll never happen again."

Bucky doesn't want to believe in the hurtful pang in his chest when Wanda says this. She says this like she's repulsed by him. Bucky's insecurities bubble up in the pit of his stomach. Does he have feelings for Wanda? No way. Maybe? Geez, he's never seen Wanda in a different light. He always saw her as his tutor. His best friend's sister. His friend. The thought of Wanda being his girlfriend never crossed his mind. Maybe one time? Okay, maybe two. More than two. Definitely more than five times.

"Well, whatever happens, I got both of your backs," Pietro says. "I'll be right back."

Pietro marches upstairs leaving Wanda and James alone to continue talking. Pietro doesn't know if he likes the idea of his best friend and his sister getting together, so he's happy to hear that they won't be getting together anytime soon. But he knows his sister, and he knows how much Wanda is in love with Bucky. That's why he punched Bucky for...doing it...with his sister. He doesn't want Bucky using her infatuation with him for sex.

"I still so sorry he punched you," Wanda apologizes on her brother's behalf again.

"It's all good, Wanda. I don't have a sibling, so I don't understand what's going through his head, but if I had a sister, I'd probably be pissed too," James says.

"At least it's out in the open now?" Wanda tries to cheer up the situation.

"Yea," James says with disappointment in his voice. "Can I get some more ice please?"

"Yeah."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Natasha Romanov clutches Steve Rogers' biceps as he presses hot kisses against her throat. He plants a gentle kiss to her neck before biting into the ivory skin, sucking the smooth canvas until color appears. He glides his tongue over the hickey, and Natasha starts to squirm underneath him. Steve slips his rough hand under her shirt, taking his time to admire her silky smooth skin. He feels his fingertips reach the bottom of her bra. He puts his hand over her breast, squeezing gently. Nat moves one of her hands from his bicep to his hair, and she's into this make out session at first. But Steve doesn't seem to be into as much as he usually is. He's more hesitant. He's more careful. It feels like he doesn't even want to do this.

She has to pull away because she knows something isn't right.

"What's wrong?" He asks.

"I should be asking you that," Natasha responds.

"What? I-"

"You don't seem to be into this right now... You don't really seem to be into it at all here lately. I'm just wondering if I did something wrong or if there's anything I can do to help? I don't want you to feel like you have to do this," Natasha tells him.

Steve sighs. He really hasn't been into sex since Wanda told him about Clint. He can't bear to think of anyone in that situation, especially Natasha. He doesn't want to push any of her boundaries. He doesn't think he's a rapist. He doesn't think about continuing to assault a girl when she's telling him, begging him, yelling at him to stop. His head just goes to place where it's Nat and him, and they're making out, and she tells him to stop, and he can't, and she yells at him. Steve's always been an "overthinker". He knows he's not a rapist, so he doesn't understand why his mind keeps telling him that he is just as bad as Clint. Now, Natasha has noticed how different he acts in bed or during heavy make out sessions. So what does he tell her?

"It's not you. I promise. I love you, Natasha. I just keep thinking about everything that could go wrong," Steve tries to explain. He's not making much sense, but Natasha just nods and goes along with it.

"Everything that could go wrong? What do you mean by that?"

Steve sighs again. He doesn't want to tell her about Wanda, but it's eating him alive not to tell someone. He doesn't want to betray Wanda's trust already. They've only been friends for a couple of weeks. The only thing he thinks he can do is tell Natasha the story without mentioning anyone's names.

"I have this friend..." He pauses. He does this a lot when telling a situation with a serious issue. "She went to this party and fell asleep there. She wasn't drunk. She wasn't doing anything wrong. But she woke up while the party was still going on, and..."

Steve pauses again. He thinks about how scared Wanda must've been when she woke up and saw Clint doing that to her. He can't imagine. He understands why she took a week off from school. Wanda did says she didn't admit that it happened to her until she finally told someone.

"Steve?" Natasha says, grabbing his attention. She takes his hand in hers and starts to rub soothing circles on the top of his hand.

"This guy...he was...touching her. She tries to pry him off her, but she says he was too strong. She says he pulled her shirt off and touched her...there...But Nat? He almost got it in. She told me he started to go, but she kneed him in the dick and bolted," Steve says.

Natasha is shocked to hear this. She puts her hand over her mouth, but she immediately starts to connect the dots. She remembers Steve bringing this up last week. His mind must be scattered because he doesn't remember he's already told her the identity of said friend.

"It's Wanda. Isn't it?" Natasha asks.

"How'd you know?" Steve asks.

"You told me about this friend last week, and I asked you who it was, and you said it was Wanda. You've been acting differently since she told you," Natasha explains.

"You can't tell anyone about this okay? I wasn't even supposed to know, but I overheard the jackass who messed with her in the locker room bragging about it. I confronted Wanda about it, and she told me everything," Steve says. "I had to tell you because it's killing me to know that Wanda is hurting because of someone like that, and no one knows what to do about it. You've noticed Pietro and Bucky and Thor have been acting different lately too? They know something's up with her, but they don't know exactly what. She asked me not to tell anyone, especially Pietro."

Natasha presses a quick kiss to his lips. "I won't tell anyone."

Natasha is shaken. She doesn't even know how to react to news like this. There are so many questions running through her mind.

She doesn't know where to begin.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed it! Let me know what you think!
> 
> Much love! xx


End file.
